This weekend I spent leading multi pitch climbs all day, no problem. On the exit, after all climbing was done, harness was off, I went to pee, did not see a huge boulder roof and walked right into it, opening a gash in my head and feeling stupid as hell, on top of feeling dizzy and not sure what was going on. If there were spikes on that rock roof, I could be way worse off. Anyways, all is well and it ended up being just a very ugly wound on my head that I am now taking my time to heal and reflect.
I think this type of incident is related on being so focused and “on the zone” while in the vertical, that after climb was done I relaxed. As a result, I got scalped by mother rock. Lesson: Be alert when you go pee after climbing. Better, be alert AFTER you done climbing as well. (Not trying to create excuses, just to learn from my mistakes and grow from it).
Could this be related to climbers focus to be low after they “survive” their epic, and put their guards down on the exit? Like “Now that the danger is over...”
Have you been on very stupid (and sometimes serious) accidents while NOT climbing?
Thank you

hey there say, Loco de Pedra... have you been here before? if not
welcome to the supertopo... (had not remembered seeing your name, but i do get to hit all the post, i am on dial up)

as to this part:

Could this be related to climbers focus to be low after they “survive” their epic, and put their guards down on the exit? Like “Now that the danger is over...”

in general, folks can be this way, in as to many situations:
driving... (off the freeway, wheww, worse is over?)

kids... (put things of danger, up in cabitets, worse is over? you relax, being a new parent, and the kids nearly fall out a window, etc)

sports... (game is done, wheww... the player goof around with buddies and slips in the locker room, or chokes on food, while laughing)

and just around the home... (think your home is in order, as to older folks, company, etc, and they slip on a loose rug)

after a few such odd accidents, as one grows older, the 'honed skill of'
BE ON GUARD... can kick in and should!...

but, sadly, human nature, into the OLDER YEARS, then will CHANGE AGAIN, due to THAT:
'being on guard' having WORKED, AS once again, you've 'survived' changes in life: 'complacency' arises--and one MUST be on guard in NEW ways...

we are just fragile humans, :)
that LOVE THE GREATOUTDOORS... :)
AND adventure, our home, or travel, or just sitting in the ol' garden...
or eating a sandwich...

our days change and our body changes with them:
such as, things we took for granted, that our eyes used to see, and our ears used to be alert to, and our bodies USED to balance well too...

well, i said all this, as:
as you well know: look what happened to you...

thanks to god, it was a 'good wake-up call' as to attention and
you will have the new trail of building SKILLS for a 'wider zone' of care...

last note, for future examples:
:)
eyes do NOT SEE THE same, once you are older and for example:

you may see a rock that looks sturdy to grab on to, when it is well ready to fall, and the eyes see only a soft blurr around the edges instead of the sharp 'crack' that show it is loose...

i shared that, as to climbing, having gleaned odd little examples, learned from the homefront:
mine, by being off an 1/8 an inch, or so, when reaching for things, DUE to far-sightedness that 'grabs us' in later year... and there things drop, fall, or 'we walk into corners... (i do not DO that anymore, well, unless i let my guard down, and get in a hurry to feed to cats) ;)

so good for you--build your skills as to more alertness as to surroundings now, of course, without going into being paranoid about it all...

Running down an old talus field below Lower Cathedral Spire, after doing a confidence-inspiring ascent of a stout 5.9 (N.E. something or other) in Bristol-like fashion, landed on an insecure boulder which in turn set off a small landslide, with me under one of the boulders. That smarted a bit. The rest of the descent went a bit... slower. Accompanied by a great gnashing of teeth mind you.

Driving home from Weeping Wall after belaying and following Munge and Angus as they established a new face route, while continuing my recuperation from a broken ankle the previous spring (climbing with Beth on Arrowhead Arete WHILE climbing lol), I fell asleep on hwy 99 while coming through Galt, rammed the back of a van at 65 mph, rolled my jeep and broke my neck in 3 places, thus complicating my broken ankle recovery.

On the approach to Charlotte Dome to do the classic route wit Burl Guido, I slipped on an icy log crossing near the confluence of Charlotte Creek with the Kings River, fell side first into freezing water and broke my middle finger on my left hand. We were going for a 1 day car to car ascent and I cursed myself mightily. After rewarming my self with epithets I taped the sh#t out of the finger which wasn't broken after all, just jammed all to hell, and we continued our ascent in fine style, missing our 24-hour mark by 2.5 hours.

Don't think so but repeated attempts to get Mark Powell to comment on it were unfruitful. I think he was on the Spire route, not the Arete, when he had his accident. But believe me I have thought about it quite a bit.

I was on p2, or rather I was off route on p2... ;)

DMT

ps I am accident prone. Since getting out of the hospital I've cut my left thumb while chopping veggies and burnt the back of two fingers on right hand enough to blister and peek, hot water in a jostled tea cup, curses!

Descending from working on a 2-pitch 5.11 FA on a remote tower in Sedona with The Doctor. Exhausted from hiking in with a ton of gear, cleaning and bolting all day.

Got down the scree slope without incident, then relaxed a little as I neared the trail. My foot caught a round rock, and instead of going backwards, I weirdly got pitched FORWARD...right into a Spanish Bayonet plant.

Everything slowed down, and I saw that one of the pointy leaves was going to put my right eye out if I didn't do something FAST. I cranked my head hard to the left as I went down, and drove the spear into my right ear in exact alignment with my eye. My assessment had been correct.

While returning from Charlotte Dome after surviving post-holing in converse tennis shoes over the pass, loosing a shoe by stepping in mud bog, snow blindness from no sunglasses, psychopathic deer, a bear, a ledge falling off with both of us standing on it (nearly killing a party of German's on the ground), down climbing 5 pitches on manky goldline because our lead rope was cut in 4 places by the falling ledge, in sight of the car, my friend Tom Burke proclaimed "I can't believe we didn't die!".

He promptly rolled his ankle on a rock in the trail, went flying forward with a full pack and took a soil sample with his face.

Ain't that the truth. I spent a couple of weeks in the Canadian Rockies ice climbing with a friend a few years back. He was a strong climber, but new to ice. He took to it really well, led a few of the easier pitches, and then decided he was ready for the real thing, and took the lead on a pitch that featured a vertical hanging curtain. It was the last pitch of a five-pitch rig and he pulled it off. Barely. Took everything he had, and rewarded him accordingly

He was just leaning back to start the first rappel when I just happened to glance down at his harness.

I screamed at him, he grabbed the anchor, and we both stood there shaking for a good long time.

He'd been so psyched by the lead, and so full of adrenaline and endorphins and whatever else that he'd only threaded one of the ropes.

Oh my eff'ing god, aside from being eaten by a great white shark while kayaking, one of my greatest fears has been falling into a yucca plant. I can't imagine what it must have been like with a full pack on. Jesus...

Oh my eff'ing god, aside from being eaten by a great white shark while kayaking, one of my greatest fears has been falling into a yucca plant. I can't imagine what it must have been like with a full pack on. Jesus...

Edit: I was thinking agave, which I mistakenly interpreted as "yucca" - sorry for the error.

Racing down from Tiara Rado, my buddy stupidly followed my downhill run on the loose and steep trail. I nearly slipped on the ballbearings atop bedrock underfoot at the worst point - just above the hairiest, spiniest, most viciously accoutrement-ed prickly pear I've yet seen. I kept running, laughing aloud. I heard a slip, and a swat and "OHF*#K!"

I stopped, turned to see my buddy with his whole right forearm and hand intimately entwined in said cactus. He had spines buried over an inch and half deep in places, with a nice light even coat of the finest red-hair devil spikes over the majority of his forearm. It took weeks for the last of the spines to work its' way out.

Don't run with scissors, turn your head if the bayonet points for your eyes, and do not swat the cactus.